The Congress party-led government moved a resolution Thursday to suspend lawmakers for continuously disrupting the lower house of Parliament, part of major steps taken to break the gridlock that has paralyzed India’s Parliament.

But the move had the opposite effect, triggering fresh opposition in the house, known in India as the Lok Sabha. Over a dozen angry lawmakers stormed its well and toppled the speaker’s microphone, forcing the house to adjourn until Friday.

Since the monsoon session of Parliament began on Aug. 5, a group of legislators from the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, many of whom belong to Congress, angered over the government’s decision to split their state in two, have day after day shouted slogans and disrupted parliamentary work.

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Opposition leaders have criticized Congress for making the controversial decision to create Telangana state before a parliamentary session and for not being able to rein in its members.

“Who is disrupting Parliament?” asked Yashwant Sinha, a senior BJP leader. “They blame us for disruption, but it is their members who have incessantly been in the well of the house.”

On Thursday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath brought a resolution to suspend 11 of them in a major push to restart legislative work that has remained stalled by the near-constant shouting matches and daily adjournments.

The Lok Sabha has lost 85% of its time to disruptions this session, according to PRS Legislative Research, a Delhi-based think tank that follows the India Parliament. Opposition to Telangana aside, partisan gridlock over issues ranging from the killing of five Indian soldiers on the border with Pakistan and communal violence in Jammu and Kashmir state, to corruption allegations against a relative of the powerful Gandhi family and missing government files sought by a federal investigation agency, have virtually shut down parliament.

One of the bills stuck in limbo is the government’s food security law, a massive program that aims to provide subsidized grains to two-thirds of India’s population and forms the centerpiece of the governing Congress party’s re-election efforts.

The government in July used an “emergency” power to impose the provisions of the law through an executive order, drawing heavy criticism from opposition parties who argued that a bill involving such large expenditures—an estimated $4 billion a year—must first be debated.

Unless the order is ratified in this session of Parliament, it will lapse. There are only 6 days left, but politicians said the populist measure is likely to go through ahead of elections that must take place before May next year.

Among other measures awaiting action is a bill that regulates how the government and private sector buy land for infrastructure and development, and one that creates an anti-corruption ombudsmen or Lokpal.

The minority government’s inability to push through new policies, particularly at a time when India’s economy needs a major boost, is a sign of the challenges it faces even as the opposition BJP jockeys for political advantage. The government has in recent days faced sharp criticism for failing to kick-start growth and stem the fall of the rupee.

On Thursday, intent on restarting Parliament, the government sought to resolve a row over missing files relating to the government’s allocation of coal blocks, which is under investigation. The BJP had demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh explain how the files had disappeared.

“We want Parliament to function, but when such a serious issue comes up, what can we do?” Sushma Swaraj, the leader of opposition in the lower house, said on Thursday in the Lok Sabha. “Let the Prime Minister give a statement and we will let the house function.”

The government earlier refused to comply with this demand, but succumbed on Thursday, saying the Prime Minister would participate in a discussion about the missing files, which will most likely be held on Friday.

“The government has nothing to hide and nothing to concede,” Kamal Nath, India’s minister for parliamentary affairs, said in Parliament.

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